Libertas’s Ganley concedes defeat in Irish contest

Declan Ganley, the leader of Libertas who has led a campaign against the Lisbon treaty, has bowed out of politics having failed to win a seat in the European Parliament in Ireland. He said he would not campaign against the treaty in a second referendum later this year and that “the future of Libertas is a matter for others”.

Libertas, which fielded more than 600 candidates in 14 member states, had an abysmal election with only one candidate officially elected – Philippe de Villiers, a French MEP.

Ganley conceded defeat yesterday evening (8 June) after a re-check of votes was ordered in Ireland’s North West constituency when his supporters reported that some ballots had been wrongly allocated. In fact 3,000 votes had been wrongly allocated to Ganley, putting him out of the running for the third seat in the constituency.

Sinn Féin, which is also opposed to the Lisbon treaty, saw its vote collapse. Sitting MEP Mary Lou McDonald lost her seat and a tightly contested battle for a third seat in the South constituency failed.

But while Ganley’s demise will come as good news for the Irish government, the elections in general have been bad news for Fianna Fáil, the main government party, which lost one seat, bringing their presence in the Parliament down to three. It saw historic losses in the local elections with a decrease of almost 25% in support. But a strategy to return a Fianna Fáil MEP in the North West constituency, and so squeeze support for Ganley, saw a veteran of the party, Pat the Cope Gallagher, a former MEP and minister, run and win a seat.

The Green Party, the coalition partners, had no outgoing MEPs but polled worse than expected.

The main winners were the Labour Party, which gained two seats, bringing their total in the Parliament to three. Fine Gael, the main opposition party, was expected to lose one seat, returning four MEPs when results are made official. Ireland will have 12 MEPs in the next Parliament, one down from the current 13.

The voting suggests that the electorate is dissatisfied with the way the government has handled the economic crisis and the opposition has urged the government to call a general election. Fine Gael will table a motion of no confidence in the government on Wednesday which it should win. But the elections have made things tighter for the government majority in the Irish parliament, the Dáil.